Apple welcomes some users to iCloud with early email — As Apple prepares to introduced its iCloud service alongside iOS 5 and its new iPhone hardware in the next two weeks, the company appears to have let some “Welcome to iCloud” emails slip out early. — An AppleInsider reader received …

Apple seeks worldwide iCloud music rights — Managers at iTunes are trying to lock down worldwide cloud-music rights, CNET has learned. — Sources familiar with the discussions between Apple, record companies and music publishers, say Apple is seeking international music licenses for its iCloud service.

Buying Yahoo Is A No-Brainer For Alibaba — Today at the China 2.0 conference at Stanford, Alibaba Groups's Jack Ma replied to a pointed question about buying Yahoo with, “We are very interested in Yahoo. Our Alibaba group is important to Yahoo and Yahoo is important to us …

Brutal Honesty — There are a lot of different kinds of people in this world. I've found that I get along best with the ones that are brutally honest. — Earlier this evening I interviewed Vinod Khosla at the jam-packed Startup Weekend Seattle event. We had a long talk …

Record-Breaking BitTorrent Lawsuit Decimated — Working alongside Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver law firm (better known as the U.S. Copyright Group), Voltage Pictures have been in the headlines time and again this year. Not for their movie-making skills, but for the copyright settlement shakedown built around their products.

Helicopter view of your driving directions on Google Maps — Getting directions is one of the most popular features on Google Maps, whether it be for driving, walking, biking or transit. Today, we are launching a new feature that allows you to bring your upcoming trip to life, by allowing you to preview your route in 3D.

Teardrop Skepticism — Preface: I don't know what the new iPhone looks like. I don't even know whether there's only one new iPhone. The only thing I know is that there existed, months ago, “N94” prototype iPhones that looked like the iPhone 4, but which contained the iPad 2's next-gen A5 CPU.

Top US Web Brands — Google was the most visited website during August 2011 with 176 million unique U.S. visitors. The Top Sites among U.S. web users remained largely the same as the month before, with Amazon increasing its rank to become the 9th most visited site during August 2011.

Adobe's Announcement Competes With Apple's — Are you excited about the announcement next Tuesday morning? You know the one, from that Silicon Valley tech company that begins with an A? — No, I'm not talking about the long-awaited unveiling of the iPhone 5 by Apple.

Nokia paying developers to build Windows Phone apps — San Francisco (CNN) — As Nokia prepares for its next crucial venture into the U.S. and high-end smartphones, the Finnish cell-phone maker is missing a crucial piece: an abundant catalog of applications.

How the Kindle Moved From BlackBerry to iPad — Do you remember the first generation Amazon Kindle? Although it helped change the publishing industry, it wasn't exactly the prettiest gadget. It was clunky, a strange shape, and looked more like a 1960s-era calculator than an e-reader from 2007.

Google's first store pops up in London — It is the ultimate brand of the internet era. But today Google embraces a more traditional form of retail technology for the first time in its short history. — The world's first “Google store” opened not in California but in the less glamorous setting …

Problems with Microsoft Security Essentials — Earlier today, we learned that the Microsoft Security Essentials tool began falsely identifying Google Chrome as a piece of malware ("PWS:Win32/Zbot") and removing it from people's computers. — If Chrome is working correctly for you, then there's no need to take any action.

Best Buy To Cut The HTC Flyer Tablet To $299 On October 1st — Watch out for falling tablet prices! No, seriously, don't get burned by price cuts. The HTC Flyer is the latest tablet to see a major price reduction. Starting tomorrow, October 1st, Best Buy will lower the price of the 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet from $499 to $299.